Query question

Hey there, and welcome!

If the book is fiction, you definitely need to have a finished manuscript before you start querying agents. Also, a query is a short synopsis that is included in a letter of introduction, which doubles as a request for an agent or editor to consider your book.

There is a query forum in Share Your Work where you should be able to learn all sorts of exciting things about queries.

Do finish your book before you start querying. No agent or editor will consider an unfinished manuscript from a new writer.

Hope that helps!

Yep, I agree.

Yup, the novel should be written, revised, and edited completely. You can always make some changes later, of course, but you should be completely happy with what you have. You never know when an agent might ask for a full!

Only the very most established authors can get away with selling unfinished fiction, and even then it's rare.

What makes fiction good is so many things -- characters, characters' voices, mood, etc., etc.

Also, everyone in publishing has seen a terrific first three chapters, followed by a so-so middle and a completely forgettable ending.

If you don't have a finished novel, you have nothing.

Non-fiction, on the other hand, is almost always sold before it's written.

By the way, a query is not a short synopsis, any more than the back-cover blurb on a paperback is a short synopsis. A query letter is a sales pitch, first, last, and always. Your query letter should read like the blurb on a paperback, because it serves the same purpose -- to hook the prospective reader into buying the book.

Finished. For fiction--finished. Think of it this way: if you've written the three greatest chapters in the history of literature and query an agent, she'll want to see your completed manuscript. Then you'll find yourself in the horrid position of having to write 75k in three days.

Not good.